Sonic The Hedgehog and The Temple of Doom
by The Oracle
Summary: A revision of "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom" using a few re-imagined parts, and characters from the Sonic games. Be warned, the infamous heart-ripping scene is still intact. The second part and conclusion is done!
1. Part 1

This is a fanfic that takes place in what you could say is an alternate version of the Sonic universe. It's basically what would happen if the Sonic characters were placed in a situation similar to that of the movie, "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom." I do not own the rights to any of these characters, games, or movies, nor do I intend to profit from this story. This was merely born from an idea I had, that I thought could be turned into a fun and exciting story. Enjoy it. Plus, I'm not really too familiar with pieces of the Sonic mythos, so cut me a little slack in that department if you could.

A shadow crawled over the ocean as a plane flied above it, containing its pilot, Miles "Tails" Prower, and his partner and mentor, Sonic The Hedgehog. The two had just finished some exercises on an island and were now headed to the area where their friends, Amy Rose and Cream The Rabbit's family resided.

"Hey Sonic" Tails gleefully shouted in the plane. "I'll bet you Amy will greet us like 5 seconds after we've landed!" Sonic looked over and scoffed. "Ah, come on Tails. Amy may be an obsessive admirer of me, but she's not THAT quick to catch on that I'm in the area. I'd say 15 seconds!"

"Wanna bet a chili dog on that?"

"Anytime, little buddy!"

"All right! You're on!" Tails reached and shook hands with his hedgehog friend.

Several minutes later, they finally saw the landing point they were looking for. But something seemed a bit off about it from a distance, a fact that wasn't lost on Tails. He quickly was able to see what looked like smoke coming from the land, and billowing up into the sky.

"Sonic! Can you see that?

Sonic peered out into the sky to see the same thing. "Yes. Yes I can. Very strange."

"You don't think Eggman attacked this place, do you?" Tails' face showed quite a bit of concern.

"Oh god, I sure hope not." Sonic looked on, his eyes searching for the source of the smoke, before pointing to where he thought it was coming from. "Land right over there. We can take a closer look right after we get out that way."

Tails wordlessly nodded, swerving the plane to get a good angle as he began the plane's descent. The smoke was faint, obviously the remnants of a fire that had occurred in this area not too long ago, but had since been extinguished by the locals. But both of the adventurers were now merely hoping that all of the locals were doing well.

Even as they touched down on the ground, Sonic and Tails could tell that something was not right. Many of the animal inhabitants were wandering around, many with despairing looks on their faces. Some of the females were sobbing too, on the ground as if looking for something they had all lost, while some of the males made sure that the fire was completely out.

Sonic was very concerned now as he stepped out of the plane, followed by a frightened looking Tails. Some of the locals were already walking up to the two heroes, grasping at their hands and begging. About what, the two had no idea. Everyone was talking so quickly and so frantically that not one intelligible word could be deciphered from the mess.

Suddenly, another hand came out and pulled Sonic away from the group. Tails quickly followed as Sonic looked over to see who had done it.

"Amy?"

Amy gazed at sonic, with a sad and confused look on her face.

"Sonic! Thank god you and Tails are here."

Tails stood still as a hysterical female had him by the shoulders, saying odd things to him as Sonic took a look around at the smoking land and it's frightened inhabitants. "Amy, what's going on? What's happened here?"

Amy looked away. "Something terrible..."

Sonic looked around. "It looks like a fire broke out in this area. Is that what happened?"

Amy looked at him with a worried face. "That was only part of what happened. You see, the fire was set intentionally."

Sonic grabbed her shoulders with a look of growing worry in his eyes. "Intentionally? Who set it then? Was it Eggman?"

Suddenly, another familiar face came forward. It was Cream's mother. "No. It wasn't him. There were no robots, and no machines, except for this submarine they came in on." She had a much more worried and saddened look on her face than Amy, but tried hard to maintain her composure.

Sonic looked between the two, trying to get a straight answer. "If there were no robots, then who did it all?" Amy just looked at him and answered, "They were animals, like us. Only they were dressed in these weird clothes. And they all had this creepy look in their eyes."

Upon hearing this, Cream's mother began to break down and sob. "It was horrible. They acted with no mercy or compassion whatsoever. They set the fire, and while I was out here trying to help put it out, they came into my home and took her!"

"Took who?" Sonic asked with wide eyes.

"Cream!" She wailed. "They stole my little girl!"

Amy quickly added to it. "It's not just Cream, Sonic. They stole all the young children. Every single child in the village is gone. I was able to fight off some of them, but I just couldn't get to Cream in time." She looked away shamefully.

Tails looked all around, and then back at the group, overhearing this conversation. "This is terrible, Sonic. We have to help them." Sonic nodded "Yeah. Robots or no robots, Eggman still has to be behind this somehow. The only problem is going to be tracking him down in that submarine you mentioned, and finding out where he put all of the children."

Amy looked at him urgently. "Well what are we gonna do? We can't just leave this all alone, and leave children in the hands of whoever did this." Sonic quickly quieted her "No. No we can't. I wasn't suggesting that at all. I think the best thing for Tails and I to do is to get in the plane and start following whatever leads we can."

Tails helped to comfort Cream's mother as Amy boldly looked at Sonic. "I'm coming with you." Sonic looked at her sternly. "You're upset, I understand that. But I don't think now's a good time to be putting yourself into a potentially dangerous situation." Amy just looked back at him. "Don't you worry about me, Sonic. I can handle myself." She picked up her mallet, which was lying nearby. Tails looked back at him as he calmed Creams mother, making a face as if to say, "Just let her come." Sonic sighed a bit and nodded. "Ok, you can come. But I still don't think it's such a wise idea."

Suddenly there was a stir in the group. One exhausted looking mother fox came out from nowhere, holding on to her young son. Everyone rushed up to see her, as Sonic pushed through the crowds to get to the young mother, who apparently was somehow able to keep her child from being captured.

"Are you all right?" Sonic asked the mother, looking very inquisitive and concerned. The mother nodded. "I'm fine, especially now that my child is safe." The little boy, who had obviously been crying from this terrifying experience, was still clinging to his mother as she comforted him. She looked up at Sonic and explained, "They couldn't get me to let go of him, so they tried to take me too. We were on their ship for a moment, before I caught one of the captors off guard, and escaped from it."

Sonics eyes grew wide. "You saw the people who did this? Tell me; was that Dr. Eggman with them? Did you see him, or any of his robots?" The mother furrowed her brow. "No, he wasn't with them, and I didn't see any of the robots. All I remember seeing were the stones?"

"The stones?" Sonic looked even more curious now.

"Yes. Three colorful stones, set into a weird shrine of some kind. They looked like big emeralds."

Sonic pulled back a little. "Emeralds?"

Tails' ears perked up? "Emeralds?"

Amy thought to herself. "Could it be?"

Sonic looked over at Tails. "Please tell me you brought the emerald tracker." Tails nodded quickly. "I did. I'll go get it!" He quickly ran off to the plane as Amy walked up to Sonic, while the young mother took her son home. "Do you really think they may have three of the chaos emeralds?" Sonic looked off into the distance. And sighed a bit. "Who knows? I'd love to know how they found them, they've been scattered for some time. Even Eggman hasn't been able to find them since we last dumped them into the uncharted territories."

Tails came back with the tracker, frantically. "Sonic! I'm picking up three signals!" Sonic instantly locked his eyes on the tracker screen. "Where are they headed?" Tails took a long look at the direction the objects were moving in. "From what I can tell, they seem to be headed..." he paused for a moment. "Straight into the uncharted territories."

Everyone froze when they heard this. This was serious. There was a good reason behind why the emeralds were thrown into the uncharted territories. Many people, who went into that section of the world rarely, if ever, came back out. Its clouded rainy atmosphere seemed to be an ominous indicator of what lay beyond the borders between it and the rest of the world. But they all very well knew that they couldn't leave an incident like this alone. Whoever these people were, they had stolen all of the children, and apparently now had three of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Clearly they needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Sonic looked over at Tails. "Get the plane ready, Tails. We're leaving as soon as it can fly again. Tails nodded and ran to the plane as Amy followed Sonic to it. Sonic looked back to her and said, "Are you sure you still want to go with us? Once we're in the uncharted lands, there's no telling what may happen to us." Amy just nodded calmly. "I'm aware of the dangers that may come, but I need to help you guys. I'm not going to rest easy until all of the children have been brought back, especially Cream."

She ran to her home nearby, and packed her mallet, as well as some books from her own little collection that she thought may be useful in going into the uncharted lands. She Ran back out as Tails finally revved up the engine on the plane.

"Everything's all set to go!" Yelled Tails, as Sonic climbed aboard. Amy took a look at the locals as they waved, wishing them all well on their quest, Cream's Mother in particular, her hands folded as if in prayer. Amy waved back as she boarded next to Sonic. Sonic looked around and gave the thumbs-up to Tails. "Ok, buddy, take her up!"

Everyone crowded around and waved as Tails took off with the others in the plane, zipping up into the sky as they immediately got themselves going in the direction of the signals given off by the emerald tracker. They passed the sea below them as they flew, while Amy took out one of the books from her bag.

Sonic looked at the book and then at her. "Bored with the traveling already?"

Amy shook her head. "These are a collection of legends regarding what lies in the uncharted lands. I thought they might be of some use to us." Tails quickly looked back at Amy. "How are a bunch of old stories and folklore going to help us?" Amy retorted, "Well, it's better to have at least some information rather than nothing at all." Tails shrugged as he continued to fly, hot on the trail of the signals.

A while later, Tails saw another pillar of smoke billowing up from another island. He pointed to it and called to Sonic. "Take a look at that!"

Sonic and Amy gazed over it, as Sonic furrowed his brow. "Did they strike someplace else already?" Tails swerved the plane a bit. "Hold on, I'm gonna go take a closer look."

Their eyes widened as they saw the source of the now relatively weak line of smoke. It was now clear that whatever happened here, was before the events on Amy and Cream's home. Tails lowered the plane around the smoldering object in the ground, which became more and more familiar in appearance as they got closer. Once they reached the ground, what they saw was unmistakable. It was the remains of Dr. Eggman's transport vehicle!

Once they landed, Sonic immediately rushed in for a closer look. Tails walked in with a look of utter disbelief on his face. "This is just amazing. You almost never see Dr. Eggman apart from this machine." Sonic just gazed at the wreck and puzzled. "It's clear now that Eggman is somehow involved in all this, but in what way? It's all so confusing now."

Tails surveyed the area of the wreck, before making a startling discovery. He pulled out what looked like a red cloth, almost like a long scarf. "Look at this! It has some kind of weird writing on it. He took the scarf up to Sonic for him to examine. Sure enough, there were all sorts of odd, almost otherworldly, symbols written across the scarf. "Let me have a look" Amy piped up, walking over and going through the symbols with her fingers, looking them through, before going to the plane, and taking out one of her books. "I knew this would come in handy."

Sonic turned his head to Amy. "What? Found something in that book of legends?" Amy slowly nodded, and pointed to one symbol in particular. "Kali."

Tails quickly spun around. "What?"

Amy opened her book to one particular page. "That's what this particular symbol stands for. It's right here in this book. You see, according to this one legend from a nearby island, the uncharted territories were once the domain of a dark and malevolent goddess named Kali." She pointed to the symbol of Kali in her book. "As you can see, this scarf carries her sign."

"So?" Sonic shrugged. "Couldn't that just be a coincidence?"

"I'm not sure" Amy flipped through more of the book. "Apparently something happened on the same island a while back. They said that some of the locals were seduced by Kali's power, and left their homes, to go worship her in the uncharted territories. Years later, they returned to the island, and to other places, slaughtering people, burning down villages, and taking back prisoners to be used as live sacrifices for their goddess. They were called the Thuggee. And they terrorized many lands for years, before an alliance of animals from numerous islands, including some good natured locals from the uncharted lands, finally vanquished them."

Tails listened curiously. "So if they were all wiped out, than they should have nothing to do with what's going on here, right?" Amy furrowed her brow. "I don't know. I'm not sure if I even want to know. It makes my blood run cold just to think that such ruthless and brutal people may have actually existed."

Sonic walked back to the plane. "Well, we can stand here all day and make up theories about what happened here, and what Eggman and this Kali character have to do with it, but we still have children we need to save, and emeralds to take back.." He glanced at Tails. "Do you still have the signals?" Tails looked at the Tracker. "They're getting faint but I still have them." Sonic rushed to the plane, "Then we'd better get moving fast before we lose them". The others leapt into the plane and took off after the signals, moving over more and more Blue Ocean.

Amy read more of her books; refreshing her memory of the old legends surrounding the uncharted territories as Tails paid attention to his flight path, staying on course to where the signals were headed. Sonic simply lay back in his seat and closed his eyes. Wherever they were going, he thought, he'd better get rested up for it.

Time passed by as Amy read, Sonic slept, and Tails flew. The sky above them began to get a little cloudier as they flew closer to the uncharted lands. Mists began to fill the air, and the scent of a fresh rain permeated the environment. Tails' grip on the controls tightened a bit as he called to the back of the plane. "I think we're close to crossing over now."

Amy heard this and nudged Sonic a bit, waking him up as he stretched and yawned a bit. "We there?" Amy nodded as she looked over the cockpit, watching the forbidding landscape of the unknown territory creep towards them slowly. Sonic looked around too, and then at Amy. "You sure you're ready to do this? This is going to be new for all three of us." Amy slowly nodded, nervous, but determined to learn more about what had been going on. Tails swallowed, and took a deep breath. "Ok. We're going in."

As Tails swerved the plane slightly, and went straight into this new unknown world, it was as if they had just crossed a visible border, from the bright and welcoming light of their own world, and into the dark and mysterious hills and mountains of the uncharted territories. The air was cool, and carried with it a sense of risk, as the trio flew deeper and deeper into this new and almost unholy feeling soil.

For miles and miles they flew, passing over almost nothing but trees, rocks, and lakes. Uncertain of what may have lay deeper in these territories, but always keeping themselves alert for any sign of life as the emeralds stayed in the sight of the tracker.

Then it happened. They saw it. Something in the distance that naturally grew larger as they flew closer to it. At first it looked like nothing more than an odd collection of mountains, but as they drew nearer, it was definitely much more than that. It was a beautiful collection of towers and minarets, painted a brilliant red and white as lovely trees and streams surrounded it.

Tails slowly spoke up. "I'm gonna land here, if there aren't any objections". The others simply nodded as he lowered the plane. It was a given that after seeing a place like this after passing through so many empty hills and valleys, that this location simply cried out to be investigated.

Amy looked around as the trio stepped out of the plane and walked on the smoothly paved walkway. "This place is beautiful. It almost has no business being in such an empty and desolate area." Sonic looked up at the towers and shivered just a little, as if something about this palace was off. "I don't know about this. If there's one thing life has repeatedly taught me, it's to never be fooled by appearances." Tails scampered along next to Sonic. "Well, whatever this place is, the tracker's telling me that we're very, very close to the emeralds now. If they aren't in here, I'd be really surprised."

Sonic looked over at him and Amy. "If the tracker's right, and the owners of the emeralds are here, then we need to be careful. We'll tell them that we're explorers, and we'll casually bring up the subject when the time is right. We don't want to make it look like we're aggressively pursuing what they have. Got it?" Amy and Tails nodded as they moved towards the entrance to one of buildings.

It was then that the figure of a lizard wearing a casual suit walked out of the palace, followed by two guards wearing red and black suits, complete with turbans. "I should say you three look rather lost" the lizard spoke up. "For I know not where in this else in this part of the land you would call home."

Sonic looked up at the lizard as he walked down from the steps. "We're not lost. We're explorers. For years, we've wondered what lies in the uncharted lands, and we've finally set out to investigate them."

The lizard looked over all three of them and nodded with a smile. "In that case, I welcome you all to Pankot palace." He extended his hand to Sonic. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Chattar Lal. Prime minister to his highness, the Maharajah." Tails made a confused face. "Ma-ha, what?" Lal chuckled and smiled to Tails. "He's sort of like a king in this area." Sonic shook lal's hand cautiously. "I'm Sonic. That's Amy, and this is my pilot, Tails." Lal tilted his head towards Tails. "Aren't you a bit young to be flying?" Tails shrugged and twirled his two tails. "I've been doing it since I learned to walk." Lal smiled and nodded and politely kissed Amy's hand. "Welcome to Pankot, miss." Amy blushed and giggled. "Umm, thank you. I guess."

Lal smiled slyly and walked back up the steps with the guards. "Come, stay with us for a while. You are just in time for our little banquet for the evening. And with any luck, our map room will be able to provide you the information you need to explore this land even more thoroughly." The trio slowly followed Lal up the steps and into the palace itself. As his back was turned to them, Lal's face now had a slight look of unease.

Sonic, Amy, and Tails all walked into the dining hall with Lal, finding the inside of the palace to be just as nice as the outside. In the background a band using drums and bells was singing a lively little song in a foreign language that Amy recognized a few words to.

"What language is that?" Tails asked, scratching his head. Amy looked back and answered. "It's called Hindi. It's the same language of the people in that legend I told you about earlier." Sonic kept an eye out for anything suspicious as he heard this, before a group of female dancers in exotic dresses suddenly passed them, startling Tails a bit as they twirled about.

The three were led to two separate rows of big pillow seats, with a long adorned table in between them. They stood near their seats politely with other figures dressed in small turbans and robes, as Lal walked to the head of the table. The band immediately stopped playing as Lal began to speak.

"His supreme highness, guardian of our traditions, our faith, and our land, The Maharajah of Pankot. Zalim Singh."

The doors opened behind him as the form of a young feline boy walked out, with two guards at his side, wearing a small turban and regal jewelry. Sonic, Amy, and Tails looked on in wonder as he sat at the head of the table, prompting the others to sit in their seats as well. Sonic quickly sat down with the others, not wanting to appear disrespectful.

The music played softly from the band as some food began to be placed on the table. Sonic noticed that there was a ram in a style of clothing different from the other guests sitting near him. Lal took notice and spoke up. "Ah yes. I forgot to mention that you three are not our only guests tonight. May I introduce to you Captain Khan, representative from our neighboring kingdom of Lahma Jat. Khan extended his strong right hand to Sonic with a small smile. "Pleased to meet you, sir." Sonic grasped it with his right hand and was surprised slightly by the powerful handshake. "Likewise."

Sonic turned his attention to Lal. "Well, we've never been this far into this part of the world before. But my friend here, Amy, was just telling me some of the stories about this place, and it's relationship with the neighboring islands." Lal smiled slightly. "And what stories have you heard about this land?" Amy and tails tried to get a look at what all they were serving when Sonic responded, "Well, if I remember correctly, a group calling themselves the Thuggee came from this land."

Lal's smile faded as some of the other guests stared at Sonic. As this happened, a servant carrying a plate with a dead lizard on it placed it near Amy and Tails, as guest next to Amy smiled. "Ah. Iguana surprise." Amy just stared at it and whispered, "What's the surprise?" The servant answered her question when he reached down and sliced open the side of the lizard with a knife, causing dozens of tiny live nightcrawlers to ooze out. Tails' Jaw dropped as he saw this, a look of disbelief in his face at the idea that anyone would want to eat this.

Lal calmly responded to what Sonic had just said. "I know you're new to this area, Mr. Sonic, but I can assure you that the Thuggee have been extinct for centuries." Khan slowly nodded as he sipped his drink, "Yes. The Thuggee were an obscenity, who used to run things right out of this old palace, and worshipped Kali with living sacrifices." He set down his drink. "A coalition that eventually included my kingdom nicely did away with them".

As this was going on, Amy and Tails both looked on wordlessly, as a few of the guests picked up the live nightcrawlers and ate them. Sonic looked around and said, "I guess stories of the Thuggee die hard." Lal slowly nodded, "There are no stories anymore." Sonic gazed at him, wondering if this Lal could be of any help in tracking whoever they were after. "I'm not so sure. We just came from two different areas, both of which were ravaged by fire. One of the places had piece of cloth, branded with what appears to be a Thuggee symbol." Lal Sat up upon hearing this, looking rather interested.

It was then that the second course came around, and Amy and Tails' stomachs churned as they wondered what would be coming this time. A servant carried a plate towards approving guests, which carried what looked like big spiders on leaves, filled with an odd brown jelly. Guests took them one by one and peeled off their abdomens to lick at the gooey innards as Amy stared at one guest in particular. He looked up at her with a light smile and chuckled, with some jelly hanging off his chin. "What?..you are not eating?" Amy just quietly responded, "Uh...I had bugs for breakfast." The guest chuckled and licked as Amy looked over at Tails. "Give me your bowl..." Tails gripped his empty bowl and cocked an eyebrow. "Why?" Amy quickly retorted, "Cause I'm gonna puke in it!" Tails covered his bowl hearing this, as the guest finished his bug and belched rather audibly.

At this moment, Amy got one servant's attention, and asked if they had anything a bit simpler to eat than the bugs. Just away from the table, a servant, a young rabbit, just about Sonic's age, looked on at the unexpected guests closely. It was as if he knew the trio from somewhere. He was also peeking from behind the column, apparently hiding from someone.

Captain Khan spoke up at Sonic, "This does sound very familiar. Tell me, when these fires were set, did the invaders take anything with them?" Sonic looked over at him. "Yes. All of the children in one area were stolen." Captain Khan's expression grew cold as the rabbit servant's eyes grew wide, making him run off silently. Kahn responded, "That was exactly what the Thuggee used to do. They would raid villages and capture children to use as slaves, and eventually some would be sacrificed when they were old enough." He gave Lal a look of suspicion. "Are you sure you know nothing of this? They DID used to operate from this palace." Lal simply folded his arms. "Now captain, how do you think you're serving your kingdom when you come here and insult your hosts. Besides, how do you know these aren't just copycat groups working from elsewhere." Sonic glared at Lal a bit as Khan quickly retorted, "Oh come on, why would anyone else want to steal children for slave labor? Why don't we ask some of your younger servants around here if they know anything?"

Lal came very close to having Khan thrown out before the young Maharajah raised his hand. "I have heard the stories of the Thuggee cult." Everyone now turned to face the young ruler as he spoke. "I thought the stories were merely folklore, meant only to frighten children. Later I learned that the Thuggee were once real, and did of unspeakable things. I'm ashamed of what happened here so may years ago, and I promise each of you, that this will never happen again, in my kingdom."

The room was silent for a moment, before Khan calmed himself and slowly broke the silence. "If I have offended you, then I am sorry." Everyone now went back to eating as Lal turned to the Maharajah, and bowed his head slightly, with a light smile on his face. Khan slowly looked to Sonic, whispering as he barely moved his lips. "I think we may be on to something here...something my Kingdom should know about. Meet me in the courtyard tomorrow morning." Sonic nodded lightly.

Amy and tails looked on as a servant brought what looked like cool butterscotch pudding, and placed it in front of them. They each took a spoon, and ate it quickly and greedily as the guest across from them looked on. "I take it you enjoy our 'Bach Natzal'." Tails looked up and swallowed. "What's Bach Natzal?" Amy shook her head at Tails, her mouth still full, as she didn't want to hear what was in it. The guest didn't notice and answered with a smile, "Bach Natzal is the chilled and whipped remains of the un-hatched eggs of a bullfrog." Tails' face quickly turned greenish as his eyes went wide. Amy froze upon hearing this, before she rolled her eyes and passed out, falling over backwards.

Time passed, the dinner ended, Amy was taken to a room, where Tails later joined her. A while later, after Sonic walked around the palace, looking for clues, he walked towards Amy and Tails' room carrying a plate filled with fruit. He knocked on the door as Amy, not in the best of moods, opened it up.

"What is it?" Amy asked in a slightly touchy way. Sonic held the plate behind his back; "I've got something for you." Amy scowled a bit, "There is nothing you have, that I could possibly want." Sonic sneered, "Right." He turned his back to her and took a bite out of an apple. Amy heard the noise, perking up as she walked over and saw the apple, she moaned happily as she took a bite from the same apple, as Tails heard the crunching, walking over and snatching some grapes.

"Man this is place is so weird." Tails managed to mumble between bites as Amy munches on her apple. "Yeah. This place looks pretty on the outside, but the inside kinda makes me shiver. Or maybe that's just the Bach Natzal." Amy shivered as Sonic chuckled, while Tails stuck out his tongue a bit. "Eww, don't ever mention that stuff again, ok? Yech."

Sonic nodded with a smile, pushing around an ugly old clay pot used for lord knows what. "Well, I suggest we turn in soon. I'm gonna meet up with Captain Khan first thing tomorrow morning, then we'll figure this whole thing out." Amy gazed at Sonic "Do you think you can trust the guy?" Sonic nodded "I think so. When he heard our story, I could sense a lot of sympathy under that tough exterior."

Amy nodded softly as the three got ready to sleep. Unbeknownst to them, somebody was watching quietly from a trapdoor in the corner, partway open. While they prepared to sleep, the door slowly closed, not making a sound.

Moments later, the figure watching them, a rat dressed in the same black turban and red suit came up from another trapdoor outside the room, finding a waiting Chattar Lal. It quietly whispered what it heard to Lal, as he nods slowly.

"Is that so? Well then, we can't very well have them messing things up, now can we?" The rat thought of something else. "What about Captain Khan? What should we do about him?" Lal smiled "Don't worry about that. We can't kill him as well, or else the lords of Lamah Jat would be at our backs. All he knows anyway are the little bits of the legend we all know. We will tell him they simply stole items from our art gallery, and made off like thieves in the night." The rat chuckled and nodded. "An excellent plan, sir." Lal nodded modestly and walked off, to arrange everything, before turning back to face the rat. "Oh. Has tonight's sacrifice been prepared?" The rat simply nodded "Yes sir. We shall be ready in just a little while." Lal walked off slowly, cleaning the dirt out between his fingernails. "Good. I shall see you then."

Later, back in the room, Sonic sat on his bed as he watched Tails, sound asleep in blankets on the floor, and then watched Amy asleep on the other bed in the circular room, the low glow of the lantern the only illumination now as night had fallen, the carpet soft beneath his feet as he thought to himself "Why? Why'd she have to come along on this trip? Is she THAT obsessed with me?" He looked around the room, uneasily. "She shouldn't have done it. There's something about this place I don't like. If the emeralds, and all the children really ARE here, then I'd hate to meet the one who orchestrated it all." He then cocked his head and chuckled to himself as he thought. "Or if it's that slipperly Lal who runs everything, then we should have no trouble pulling off a rescue. He doesn't seem like the type who can lead things too strongly under pressure." He sat in his bed, relaxing, unaware of the figure crawling down the wall into the bedroom behind him, a rat in the same red and black clothing as the last one. Sonic thought to himself "Well, I may be stuck with Amy, but at least I have good old reliable Tails at my side too, so I guess it balances o-".

Sonic had no time to finish his thought, as the rat suddenly took off its scarf, and wrapped it around Sonic's neck from behind, choking him with it! Sonic could barely make a sound as he kicked and struggled with the rat on his bed, the rat holding firm and staying silent with a cold look in it's eyes. Sonic kicked, unable to spin, as his feet touched something. It was the ugly clay pot he remembered from earlier. He quickly gripped it with his feet and threw it up with them, promptly smashing it on the rat's head!

The sound quickly awoke Tails and Amy, both bolting upright as Amy gasped and Tails yelled "Sonic!" Sonic was still struggling with the rat, who, despite his slightly bloodied face, still kept a hold of him, choking him. Sonic managed to sit up and flip off the bed, knocking the wind out of the rat as he fell with him. Sonic rolled away from the rat, catching his breath. The rat slowly stood up near the balcony, taking out a curved dagger, ready to finish the job until out of nowhere, a mallet struck him hard in the chest! Amy pulled back her weapon as the blow sent the rat falling backwards, and tumbling right over the edge of the balcony as he fell to his death!

Tails patted Sonic on the back as he caught his breath "Are you ok?" Sonic gasped a bit as he began to breathe normally. "Yeah. I'm ok. Just glad to get air moving through here again." Amy smiled a bit as she twirled her mallet a bit. "See. I always come prepared." Sonic nodded a bit, thinking now that maybe it was a good idea to bring her after all, as Tails chuckled a bit and walked to the door. "Ok. I say we get out of here now, and rethink our strategy." He tried to turn the knob, but it wouldn't move. "Hey. It's stuck!" Sonic stood up, shaking his head. "It's not stuck. They locked us in!" Amy lifted her mallet. "Don't worry. I'll send this door crashing down."

Sonic quickly stopped her. "No Amy! If we try to escape that way, there could be more of those assassins out there waiting for us." Tails quickly looked to the balcony. "Then let's go down this way. I can fly you down!" Sonic took him by the arm. "Fly BOTH of us down?" He motioned to Amy. Tails, too used to carrying only sonic in these situations, quickly froze and nodded. "I see your point".

Amy looked around and back at Sonic. "Well what are we going to do? We can't stay in here the whole time." Sonic nodded "I know, I know, just let me think" He searched around the room, looking for any other doors he may not have seen before. The trap door was latched shut from the inside, so it could be found or opened. As he fumbled around the room, he noticed something on one section. Something was blowing the flowers in the pot around a little. He walked over and held his hand out next to the flowers, and discovered that there was a draft coming into the room, but not from the balcony. He slowly went over to a section of the wall that the draft seemed to be coming from as Tails and Amy looked on. He tapped on the wall, finding it to be hollow from inside as he looked around for some way to open it up.

Amy sat down on the bed as Tails Sighed, and muttered "We're never gonna get out of here." He reached up, bored, scratching some dirt off a lantern nearby. He saw some more dirt further on up the lantern, so he reached up to get at it, inadvertently pulling it down. The chain that was holding up the lantern was apparently attached to something, because once he pulled it down, it made a snapping noise, setting something off as he jumped back. Sonic looked at Tails, and then back to the wall as it suddenly pulled back to reveal a dark passage!

"There we are!" Amy smiled as she got up and walked to the passage. Sonic smiled back at Tails. "You've made yourself useful yet again little buddy." Tails blushed and scratched the back of his head as he grinned sheepishly. "Just doing my job." He said as he walked to the entrance of the passage with the other two.

Sonic peered into the passage, seeing a glimmer of light ahead. "I don't like the look of this place, but it seems to be our only real way out of here, so I guess we should take our chances here, since we know we shouldn't try to get of the room directly."

It was at this point that tails heard beeping from the tracker. He quickly whipped it out and looked at it. "It's picking up the signals of the emeralds again." Amy Looked to Sonic. "Do you think they could be at the end of wherever this passage goes?" Sonic furrowed his brow. "I don't know. It's likely I guess. Wherever they are, lets hope the children aren't far off from their signal. I don't want to spend too much more time in a creepy place like this." Tails quickly bounded next to the two as they started down the path. "You said it, Sonic. This place gives me the willies!" Amy walked carefully as the room got smaller behind them "It's not so much the place that bothers me. I just want go somewhere where they have edible food." She shivered a bit as she took out a pear from her bag and munched on it, while Tails grabbed a few more grapes.

As they walked, Tails carried the lantern from earlier, which he had grabbed on the way out, illuminating the walls, which were covered in ancient writing, some of it fading from years of decay. The farther they walked, the more the heat in the passage seemed to increase, first only casually noticeable, but soon outright obvious. Amy waved her hand in front of her, trying to cool herself "Whew! Can you feel that?" Sonic wiped some sweat from his brow. "Yeah, I can. It's getting hot." Tails panted a bit, a bit overwhelmed as he kept the lantern up as best he could.

The trio saw a light at the end of the passage, a ghastly red/orange glow as they walked closer, albeit a little hesitantly, to where it emanated. Amy tiptoed around the numerous bugs in the passage, as Tails stepped on some of the ones in his way, crunching them as Amy shuddered. "Quit doing that." Tails shrugged and apologized as he carried on with sonic, with Amy quickly moving away from the bugs as the finally reached the exit from the passage.

What they saw from here on astonished them. A single pathway made of stone stood in front of them, as lava flowed freely along both sides of the passage, heading downwards somewhere, giving the room and the passage the immense heat they were feeling. Amy took a water canteen out and sipped it, handing it to Sonic and Tails. Sonic grinned as he sipped. "Wow. You DO think of everything don't you" Amy giggled a bit before looking on.

"Do you think we should go any further?" Sonic looked back to the sloping passage. "It's a long way back up." Tails walked down the path a little more. "Yeah. We've come this far. We should go a little further. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?" Sonic smiled and nodded as he walked to Tails, joining him as Amy reluctantly checked her bag, and headed off to join them.

The path took them to some dusty old stone steps, which seemed to go quite a ways down. Amy looked down and gasped a bit at the height as Sonic moved her head up, and wordlessly motioned for her to keep it up, and not look down. Tails steadied himself, getting his tails ready in case him or one of them fell accidentally, and slowly began to descend with the trio.

As they walked down, Amy began to relax. "Well, this isn't so bad" she smiled and walked down more confidently, before one of the stones on the step, which she walked on, gave out underneath her, falling into the lava below! She screamed and flailed as Sonic grabbed her, and pulled her upright on the next stone. Amy clutched at him, smiling at him and blushing a bit as Tails tried to hold back a chuckle at what looked like a practical embrace between the two. Sonic simply looked at her. "Don't get any ideas". He let go of her, as she blushed harder, walking down with him and Tails some more.

Tails suddenly leapt up and floated on his whirling tails as another rock gave out from under his feet. Sonic kept moving, making sure Tails was ok, before another rock gave out from under him. He almost fell to the Lava, before Tails quickly moved over and grabbed him in mid-air, carrying him back to safety.

Amy looked on, perplexed. "How many more of these steps are weak?" Sonic scratched his head as he pondered that question, while tails carefully reached out to touch another stone step. Once his foot touched it, the entire row of stones suddenly gave out, leaving a gap between them and the next set of steps! Tails looked down at the lava, and to the gap. "awwwwww man."

Sonic sighed, readying his feet. "I can see there's only one way to get out of this alive." He suddenly grabbed Amy and Tails' hands. "Hang on!"

Before either could protest, Sonic leapt over the gap, pulling the two along with them, and landing on the other side, as he took off running, full speed as the stones behind them began collapsing in random spots, some stones falling, while others remained. He ran with all his power, as Amy pumped her own feet as hard as she could with him, and tails whirled his two appendages behind him to give the trio extra speed. The stairs ended, leading to another path as they raced down, as stones continued to fall from under their running feet, plummeting into the lava.

Sonic kept a good hold on both Amy and Tails as the path suddenly took another sharp downward slope, the stones giving out much closer to their feet in more and more random spots, as they fought to keep from plummeting with them, the vibrations from the fast running and falling stones dislodging some overhanging rocks as well, falling onto the path in front and in back of them as Tails whirled along, and Amy kept a hold of sonic and her bag at the same time.

Sonic ran and ran with them, not giving up as he saw what looked like an exit from the path, heading straight to it. At that moment, a big rock came down on the last part of the path, taking out a huge chunk of it, and making an enormous gap between them and the exit. Sonic would not give up though. He ran and ran and ran, increasingly faster, as Amy and Tails looked on in terror at what he was about to attempt.

Sonic finally took off from the edge as Amy screamed, and Tails held on tight, knowing he couldn't carry them both in mid-air if this stunt should fail. Sonic flew through the air, looking determined to reach the other side as the lava flowed below them, a threatening reminder of what they were now facing as they coasted through the hot sky.

Sonic threw the two forward as they tumbled down onto the other side of the gap successfully, and he then rolled as he barely hit the other side as well. They had made it.

Sonic got up, caught his breath, and dusted himself off as a relieved Amy walked over and hugged him. "Oh wow! That was an amazing save! Thanks Sonic!" Tails giggled as Sonic blushed, and gently pushed her away. "Now, what did I just tell you on the stairs? Don't get any ideas." He huffed and walked into the next passageway, leading the other two as Amy smirked a bit. "It's not MY fault that you're giving me those ideas." She giggled and picked up her bag as she joined Tails in following Sonic.

Something was a bit different about this path. It was less hot than the last one, but not by much, as the trio strolled down. Eventually they began to hear noises coming from one area, as they moved slowly in the direction of that area. Sonic readied himself for just about anything as he moved closer with Amy and Tails, as the sound grew louder, sounding almost like singing, but a distorted, and unholy sounding song in a strange language.

"Oh, ne pe shaka go ra ten. Eh peesh ray ba-be che gram, che gram!"

A loud bell chimed, along with a drum, startling the trio as they began to peek over the side of the ledge they were on, above the singers.

"Oy a pe baba ga te see gam! Ah na mez sanna ga-le pan me!"

The bell chimed in with the drum once more, louder than before as Sonic looked down to where the singing was coming from. The sight was incredible and terrible. There were a collection of rats, all wearing black and red uniforms and turbans, separated from a groutesque altar by a gap in the rock in front of them, leading straight down into a fiery pit of lava. In front of them stood a frightening statue of a female figure with a decaying face, it's arms holding out two skulls as it also wore a necklace of bones, and a skirt made of rotting leg bones.

The worshippers sung again "Ish-a malestes un ga prum-la! Con gru a shes frua paralama washatawa!"

The Bell chimed louder as the drumbeat hit with a sickening thud, while Amy and Tails looked on in horror. Amy quickly remembered something as she whipped out her books again. It was then that the singers hit a frightening cadence, while steam and sickening smoke rose from the pit below.

"SAY A PREE BE GEH BE OHN TEY YAMBO! RIGA YAN PAHN CONNA YA SE TAMBO!"

Tails shivered and whispered. "What in the world is this?" Amy read through notes she made of the legends, and looked coldly out as she clutched the book close to her chest. "It's a Thuggee ceremony." Sonic quickly looked to her. "Are you sure?" Amy nodded slowly. "It's like they described in this book. They're worshipping Kali." She pointed ominously to the statue.

Sonic looked around the area some more, and saw a couple more things of note. The "Maharajah", the young cat boy they met earlier, was sitting in the front row of worshippers, seemingly hypnotized by all this as his eyes looked cold and glazed over. Chattar Lal was also there, on the altar, dressed in ceremonial garb this time, as a door opened, and a figure dressed in black and red robes stepped out. The three were shocked to find that this figure was an echidna, like Knuckles! But he was different from knuckles. His eyes were sharp and fierce looking, with black fur streaked red in some spots, a look of sheer malevolence in his face as he was also dressed in ceremonial garb, complete with an elaborate headdress which had two long horns protruding from the side, and decorations including a shrunken head above the brow. He stood out, looking at the worshippers, flashing an evil grin to the seemingly indifferent Maharajah.

Sonic, Amy, and Tails looked on in sheer awe, unaware that what they would see next would utterly and truly shock them more than what they had seen so far.

They heard yelling in the background somewhere, as a larger figure, an alligator dressed in uniform, was trying to drag out a yelling, unwilling sacrifice for Kali. Seconds later, it was revealed that the sacrifice being dragged to the altar was DR EGGMAN! He was bound, covered in ritual paint, and utterly humiliated in this condition, trying to fight off the much more powerful alligator, but it was no use. The worshippers began singing again as Eggman was shoved into small, cage-like restraint by the gator, and two other echidnas, twisted looking and covered in white face-paint. The gator slapped the two shackles over Eggman's wrists as he stepped aside, and the smaller, but more frightening figure of the Echidna priest, whom the others referred to as "Mola Ram" slowly walked towards the frightened Eggman.

Amy watched silently as Tails leaned over to Sonic. "How do you suppose they were able to catch him?" Sonic shrugged and leaned over a bit more. "I don't know. But if these guys could defeat Eggman so easily, then we may all be in bigger trouble than I thought." Tails shivered a bit at the thought as he watched with the other two.

Back down at the altar, Mola Ram ran his large hand along the side of Eggman's face as it sweated In fear, lightly chanting. "Bunno lak te. Bunno lak te Kali ma." Mola Ram's expression was icy, with a hint of anticipation. "Uk tee deh dee, Kali-ma." He reached his open hand up to the statue above him and the cage. "Kali-ma." He chanted, almost trance-like. "Kali-ma!" His hand trembled a bit as Sonic looked a bit closer, wondering what was about to happen as Tails and Amy sat behind him.

Mola Ram chanted louder. "Kali-ma, shuk tee deh!" he began to lower his open hand as he eyed Eggman's chest. "Oh-nee-jerado, beh-beh ah geh." The faint sound of a heartbeat could be heard, as Mola ram suddenly took his hand, and plunged it into Eggmans chest!! Eggman screamed in pain and terror, as Mola Ram pulled back out, displaying Eggman's large heart, still beating in his hand!! The crowd let out a loud series of chants as this happened, which covered up the defeaning scream from Amy as she witnessed this! Tails sat as he gasped at the sight, his mouth wide open as Sonic quickly scrambled, and put his hand over Amy's mouth, silencing her as the chanting quieted down.

Eggman, still alive, looked down as the wound in his chest suddenly healed up, while Mola Ram held the still beating heart up for the crowd. "Oh bes ke ban, beh-beh no jee-deh hei!" The crowd stood and cheered their approval as Mola Ram repeated the phrase more loudly, "Oh bes ke ban, beh-beh no jee-de hei!!" Eggman panted hard, yelling "Why are you doing this to me?" as Mola Ram shouted "OH BES KE BAN, BEH-BEH NO JEE-DEH HEI!!!!"

Sonic looked down at the altar as Amy panted lightly from terror, her eyes wide open as Sonic looked back at the other two. "He's still alive." Tails furrowed his brow as Amy stammered, "How is that possible?" Tails looked to Amy "Doesn't your book say anything about it?" Amy slowly shook her head as they watched.

Eggman looked around desperately as he yelled out. "Why did this have to happen? I had just found three of the emeralds using my new detector in these lands, and suddenly you all had to come and steal my submarine, and shoot me out of the sky when I tried to escape. What do you want with me anyway? Give me my heart back!" The pleas were met with deaf ears as the two face-painted echidnas moved the cage he was in, attached to chains that were hooked to the statue from above. The echidnas flipped the cage, so he was now facing down, as Mola Ram nodded to Chattar Lal. Lal promptly pushed a lever as two doors below Eggman opened, revealing a swirling pool of lava below. The realization hit Eggman as the cage slowly began to lower itself into the pit.

The trio watched in horror from above as Eggman shouted "NOOOOOOOOOOO!", slowly descending into the pit as the crowd chanted "KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM SUR-RAM! KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM SU-RAM!" The song swelled and swelled as Amy clutched the book harder, and Tails and Sonic looked on in amazement and horror, as the drums began beating harder, and parts of the crowd began throwing in some chants of "CHOY-HUP! CHOY-HUP! CHOY-HUP! CHOY-HUP!" it became faster and faster as Mola Ram held up the heart, which was beating faster, and beginning to smoke as he chanted "Oh-nee-jerado! Oh-nee-jerado! Oh-nee-gerado! Oh-nee gerado!"

At this point, the drums beat at a rapid pace, the chorus reaching a fevered pitch as Mola Ram held out the heart. Eventually, the scream of Eggman finally hitting the lava below was heard throughout the temple, his body catching afire as his heart began to go ablaze in Mola Ram's hand. Mola Ram held up the flaming heart, beginning to laugh triumphantly as Eggman finally disappeared below the lava, dead!

Sonic could only watch with the others in disbelief, as the enemy he had known and fought for such a long time now, had been killed! Mola Ram held up the villain's flaming heart for all to see, his bone chilling cackling resonating throughout the temple walls. He then tossed the heart into the fiery abyss below as the crowd chanted softly, walking off the altar, saying "Kali-ma." a few more times.

As the crowd continued to chant, Amy saw something and pointed it out. "Look over there." Sonic and Tails glanced at three echidnas in skull-like face paint, holding three objects under pieces of cloth. As the chorus hit another high note, the cloths were pulled off, revealing three shiny gems. The Chaos emeralds!

The rats stood and cheered again, with a refrain of "Kor-ram, kor-ram, kor-ram sur-ram." The three echidnae then slowly brought the emeralds together as they glowed. After a minute of admiring the gems, they gently placed them into a shrine shaped like a giant skull, putting two in the eyes, and one in the nose. They slowly backed away, bowing to the shrine as the crowd began to disperse, the chanting growing softer as the rats all left, heading back to wherever it was they came from, some of them probably back to the upper level of the palace.

This left Sonic, Amy and Tails alone in this frightening place. Sonic shook his head softly. "This is bad." Tails' ears perked up. "What do you mean? I know it was unpleasant to look at, but those guys did us a favor. Dr. Eggman is gone!" Amy jumped in. "Yeah, but look at who finally got him!" Sonic nodded. "Amy's right. These Thuggee guys shot Eggman down, using his own weapons, they have three of the chaos emeralds, and they probably have all the children around here someplace too. And they're all animals, like us, not brainless machines! For all we know, these guys could turn out to be even worse than Eggman if we don't stop them now!"

Tails looked to him, worried. "So how do we stop them?" Amy looked to the temple. "Well, I think it's a little early to think about stopping them altogether. But we can at least get the emeralds back and free the children somehow. That should take the wind out of their sails for a bit." Sonic nodded "That's right. That's what we need to do. Then we can gather everybody, and decide what we're going to do about the Thuggee before they become an even bigger problem."

It was at this moment that Amy saw something out of the corner of her eye. She looked down towards the altar, as she saw a figure in a cloak walking into the room. "Sonic." She whispered. "Someone's down there right now." Sonic looked over, crawling slowly along the side of the wall, his back against it as he looked down, and Tails watched him with Amy. Tails looked at the cloaked figure, whispering, "What's he doing?" The cloaked figure produced a sack, and lifted one of the emeralds, placing it inside.

"He's taking the emeralds." Amy said, a bit louder. Sonic sneered and edged along the wall some more. "Not on my watch!"

Sonic then sprang from the wall, spinning as his momentum carried him across the fiery chasm, onto the altar. He ran up to the figure as it took the third emerald. "Ok, buddy, hand them over!" He yelled, only to receive a hard punch in the face for his troubles from the figure as it whipped around. Sonic tumbled down as the figure stared at him. He looked up and rubbed his cheek, very familiar with the punch. "Knuckles?"

The figure pulled back it's hood, revealing the face to indeed be that of Knuckles. Knuckles scowled at Sonic. "What in the world are YOU doing here?" Sonic slowly got to his feet. "I could ask the same of you." Knuckles dusted off his hand and checked the emeralds in the bag. "Well, I started having these dreams back on Angel Island. Visions you might call them. I felt the presence of an ancient evil force in this land, and that it possessed three of the chaos emeralds. I also felt the presence of the fallen one."

"Fallen one?" Sonic scratched his head.

"Yes. I believe you saw him earlier. He was the one with the horned helmet, who ripped out Eggman's heart."

"Oh yes. It's kind of hard to forget that guy." Sonic looked into the pit where Eggman had been sacrificed.

Knuckles nodded slowly. "He is the fallen one. His name is Mola Ram. He was once a respected figure in my tribe, but was seduced by the power of this wicked goddess called Kali, and now uses simple creatures as puppets for his schemes. Believe me, he's a creature you do NOT want to fool with."

Sonic breathed hard. "Believe me, after seeing what the guy can do, that's the last situation I want to find myself in." He looked around the temple some more. "I think they also might have stolen a lot of children. Have you seen any around here?" Knuckles nodded slowly. "Follow me." He headed into a passageway as Sonic followed suit, leaving Amy and Tails to fend for themselves for a moment.

Amy looked on from the ledge as the two walked off together. "Where are they going?" Tails smiled and sat back. "Oh, don't worry about Sonic and Knuckles. They can take care of themselves. They'll be back to pick us up in no time." Amy nodded slowly as she leaned over the edge a bit to take a closer look. Suddenly, a rat in a uniform popped up, hissing at her! Amy screamed and fell back, fumbling for her mallet, but ending up in the rat's arms as she struggled, while Tails was grabbed from behind by another rat, struggling before a knife was put to his throat, quickly calming him as the same was done to Amy, trapping them.

Meanwhile, Sonic and Knuckles walked along another passage, before Sonic heard a crack, and the wailing of a child. He gasped, and crawled over to the hole nearby, where he could see.

What he saw below him was from a nightmare. Children right and left, in shackles, carrying rocks and pushing carts as rats lashed at them with whips to go faster. He looked down to see a familiar face, Cream, who looked exhausted as she carried rocks with other children. At one point, she stumbled, and dropped a few rocks, prompting another familiar figure, the big Alligator from earlier, to ready his whip for her. At that moment, the same older rabbit servant, who had been spying on the dinner earlier, rushed in and pushed Cream out of the way, acting as a brother to her apparently. The angry Gator shoved the boy down onto his stomach, and raised the whip high, lashing him!

The sight of the whipping made Sonic sick to his stomach. The Gator lashed the boy a second time, as the boy took it with a look of defiance. Just as the Gator was about to lash him a third time, Sonic picked up a rock, and threw it down towards the Gator, hitting him on the head with it!

Knuckles rushed over. "What are you doing? Are you insane?" He yelled, as The Gator looked up and pointed to the hole above him, yelling "Shao-leeka-lo!" Sonic quickly got up as he and Knuckles ran for the exit, only to find numerous rat guards waiting for them, with their swords drawn.

And with that, we are now at the end of Part 1 of this fanfic. Stay tuned for part 2, where we WILL have, among other things, the famous mine cart chase, with a few Sonic twists, of course.


	2. Part 2

The rumbling of mine carts and the cracks of whips could be heard as children were being forced to dig into the very depths of the underground caverns by the cruel rats of the Thugee, and their ringleader, the large and imposing Aligator dressed in their garb, who would pass by a straggler, and whip them once with a cry of "Shao-leeka-lo!"

It was a group of miserable slaves that had just grown by one. Poor Tails was now among them as he was being bossed around by a couple of surly rats, staying next to his friend Cream, who was often warning him of which rats and areas to stay away from.

Meanwhile, Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles, were all chained up in another room, dark and covered in torches along the walls, all by themselves as the three captured Chaos Emeralds shined on an altar nearby.

Knuckles scowled at Sonic. "Did you really need to throw that rock?"

Sonic scowled back at him. "Hey. What did you want me to do? He was WHIPPING that poor kid. What did you expect me to do? Just stand idly by and watch him do it?"

Knuckles showed no emotion to this "That would have been sensible given our position."

Sonic scoffed. "Oh, real nice. You're a very compassionate fellow, I can tell."

Amy interrupted them both. "Quit it, you guys! There's no point in bickering about this now. The fact is, we're here, we're trapped, and we need to think of a way to get out of here before we end up like Eggman!"

Knuckles just looked at her silently and nodded slowly As Sonic gave her an odd look. "Since when did YOU become the voice of reason in this group?" Amy shrugged and giggled a bit. "Happens under extreme duress, I guess."

Sonic just chuckled and shook his head, before they heard a voice say, "Please, let me die."

The three all turned their heads to see the figure of the same rabbit from earlier, who looked close to Sonic's age, maybe a bit younger, and was dressed in his same old servant clothes. He was still nursing his whip wounds from a while back as he crept into the room from a hidden passage.

He looked around and said, in a slight accent, "I pray to Chaos, 'Let me die', but I do not." He then slid to the middle of the room. "I often wonder if there is a reason he lets me live." He walked to a rock and sat on it as Sonic just stared at him. "Who ARE you?"

The rabbit smiled a bit. "I am called Ranjit. The oldest of the young servants they have here." Knuckles looked to him, curiously. "How come you're not chained up, or being followed and whipped, like the rest of them?" Ranjit shrugged. "They simply don't bother much with me anymore." Knuckles furrowed his brow. "I don't follow."

Ranjit smiled. "Perhaps I should explain. Like these children, I was stolen from my home a long time ago, and put to work in these very same mines. Now, when some servants reach a certain age, they are to be taken to the ceremonial altar, and sacrificed to Kali." Amy Gasped at this, and shuddered. "How awful!" Ranjit nodded. "Yes. I had seen many old friends sacrificed, before they got to me. But I escaped them. I slipped them when they were taking me to the altar, and after successfully hiding from them, they decided to give up on me. But I am still mindful to avoid their grasp, should they ever change their minds."

Sonic thought over this. "But wait, I saw you earlier, protecting Cream from getting whipped. If it weren't for my rock distracting that slave driver, you would have been captured again. Why'd you risk it?". Ranjit shrugged. "Because I feel a lot for Cream. I know what she's been through, and seeing here there reminds me so much of what I went through. She touched me. She seemed so compassionate and caring deep down. I felt a need to protect her." Amy smiled a bit. "Oh I see. So you've become like a surrogate big brother to her." Ranjit nodded and smiled as Amy mused "Awww, that's sweet."

Knuckles interrupted. "Yes, that's fine and dandy. Now do you know of a way to free us?" Sonic nodded. "Yeah. This isn't exactly a comfortable place." Ranjit nodded slowly. "Yes. I have ways of breaking shackles and picking locks. The problem is that there are so many guards in every corridor that an escape is a near impossibility. I've been trying to think of a way to free everyone, but the same problem with the number of guards keeps coming into play." Amy looked to Ranjit. "Well, if you free us, we could help you think of a way." Sonic nodded. "Yeah. Our intention was mainly to retrieve these children anyway."

Ranjit smiled a little as he realized what this could mean. "Yes…yes! Maybe you three can help me. That would surely work out with what I have in mind." He walked back to the hole he crawled out of. "I have a living quarters hidden just outside of the palace through these tunnels. I can go get a bunch of my homemade lock picks, and bring them back here." He began to crawl into the tunnel as Knuckles barked "Well, go and get them then!" Sonic yelled to him. "Act quickly, they might be coming for us soon." Amy joined in "Don't get caught, Ranjit. We're counting on you. ALL of us!"

A few moments after Ranjit left the room, a few guards entered through the door, and stood watch. It was then that the imposing figure of Mola Ram entered, slowly walking around the three, and removing his horned helmet. He placed it on a table as he looked to the three gems, and then back to Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy.

He just gazed at them as he plainly stated, "You were caught, trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds." Knuckles looked to him. "You're very perceptive." Mola Ram just sneered at him. "You find this humorous? If so, then you should find what I might do to you as punishment to be the height of hilarity." Knuckles sneered back. "Do your worst, you damn traitor!"

Mola Ram chuckled a bit. "You call ME a traitor? Do you even know who I am?" He walked to the Emeralds and examined them. "Let me explain something to you, as one of the few survivors of Angel Island. You see, I was once a prominent spiritual advisor on Angel Island." Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, I know all about that, and how that dark goddess Kali won your heart, and you turned against everyone." Mola Ram turned and rubbed his helmet a bit. "But did you also know that it took place around the time of Tikal?" Knuckles' eyes widened, as Sonic and Amy looked on in disbelief. "How can that be? Tikal's father went after the master emerald years and years ago. How can you still be alive?"

Mola Ram smiled and rubbed an old red amulet on his chest. "The power of Kali can give life. Eternal life, to whomever she pleases. I am her vessel, her ambassador to the world. She will not let me be bound to mortality. And the Echidnae you have seen are the descendants of those who followed me here, and also believe in Kali." Sonic jumped in. "Just who is this Kali anyway?" Mola Ram put his helmet to the side again and walked around the room. "Seeing as how you're trapped here for the rest of your lives, I shall tell you. Kali is the sister of Chaos." Knuckles furrowed his brow. "Sister?"

Mola Ram nodded. "Yes. As Chaos is a being of water, Kali is a being of fire. And she knows all too well of Chaos' greed. He hoarded the chaos emeralds, and the master emerald from her, thinking he was the only one suited to have them, and after a long battle, sent her to the underworld and forgot about her. But she did not cease her determination. She called out to someone from her prison in the inferno. And I was the one who answered her. When we talked, she warned me. She warned me not only about Chaos and his greed, but also about Tikal's father, who lusted after the power of the master emerald, so much that in the end, it cost him the life of his daughter." He looked down at this point. "I was her personal spiritual guide for many years. I cared for her, possibly more than her father ever did. I tried to deliver her message of warning all across Angel Island, but in the end I, and the others who came to believe in me, were declared enemies of the peace, and expelled from their society!"

Knuckles looked at him skeptically. "Well, that may have had something to do with Kali's apparent demand for living sacrifices."

Mola Ram looked to him sternly. "Do not judge me so harshly for doing what must be done. I gave those people a purpose, a great purpose for which they shall be spiritually rewarded when Kali accomplishes her mission. I value life just as much as you do."

Sonic snorted. "Ha. That sounds kind of funny from someone who keeps innocent children down here chained up like slaves." Mola Ram shook his head and walked around Sonic. "You still fail to see my vision. These children dig for ore and minerals for weapons and machines, so that they can support our cause. They also search for the last 4 emeralds, which I believe to be hidden down here in the catacombs. I can sense that Kali diverted these four here, into the lands of those who are loyal to her. Soon, we will have all seven chaos emeralds, and the Thuggees will be all powerful."

Amy looked at him; half scared and stated, "What a vivid imagination." Mola Ram just chuckled and walked over to her, grinning a bit. "You…doubt me?" He smiled more. "You won't when I am through with you." Amy just stared at him as he continued. "You will become…a true believer…" Sonic and Knuckles looked on, wondering what he was up to, as the large Alligator slowly walked into the room, and right up to Amy. At the same time, Mola Ram accepted a bizarre object from one of the rats. It was large goblet, filled with a foul smelling liquid that looked like blood. At the same time, another figure entered the room. It was the Maharajah, with the same glazed over look in his eyes, standing near a torch as Mola Ram brought the Goblet over. The Alligator then grabbed the terrified Amy by the face, and opened her mouth with his hand.

Mola Ram chanted softly as he began to pour the liquid into her mouth. It didn't take much for Sonic and Knuckles to decide that this was a bad thing they were doing. Sonic frantically shouted, "Amy! Don't drink it!" as Knuckles yelled "Spit it out, Amy! Spit it out!" Amy held the liquid in her mouth as Mola Ram continued to pour, before finally breaking free of the Alligator's paw, and spitting it in his face. Mola Ram grunted in frustration, before yelling something to the Maharajah.

Sonic looked over to see the Maharajah, as he pulled out a small effigy made of straw, which looked like Amy. He watched as a hypnotic smile appeared on the boy's face, and he held the figure up to the torch flames. At that same moment, Amy yelled out in pain, feeling a sharp burning sensation in her back. The Maharajah smiled more as he held the figure up to the flames a few more times. Amy yelled "Stop it!" numerous times, on the verge of sobbing before the Gator plugged her nose with one paw and held her mouth open with the other, as Mola Ram poured the liquid down. "After we have slaughtered our enemies here in the uncharted territories, we will cross the borders, overtake every land! Corrupt governments and cities will fall right and left! The greedy and rotted form of Chaos will soon be cast down and forgotten!" The Gator then closed Amy's mouth, forcing her to swallow as Mola Ram looked to the sky. "Soon, Kali-Ma will rule the world!"

Amy shuddered and closed her eyes, exhausted as the guards walked over and unchained her. Sonic slowly shook his head and groaned, "Why? Why her?" Mola Ram walked to Knuckles first. "Because you do not deserve what I have given her…" he then walked to Sonic and pointed to him, "And I also need a sacrifice that will please Kali greatly." Sonic breathed heavily as he heard this, trying to conceal his fear now as Knuckles scowled at Mola Ram, trying to find some weakness in his shackles, and failing.

Meanwhile, the guards dragged Amy, who was still groggy from the liquid she was force fed, and threw her onto a stone slab in a bizarre room filled with skulls and candles, as well as thuggee symbols. The Guards left her as she trembled and shook, the effects of the liquid beginning to take hold. She clutched her hands and moved them around as she looked up into the ceiling, apparently hallucinating. She breathed harder and faster as what she saw became more and more horrifying, and made her convulse in terror on the slab. She screamed as she kicked, knocking over a candle as she yelled out and thrashed around on the slab, absolutely horrified by what she was seeing. After a few more minutes of this, she bolted up in the darkness, panting softly as a terrible smile began to crawl across her lips; her eyes glazed wide open as a hypnotic, trance like state came over her.

A few rooms down, some slave children were sitting in shackles, being given a brief rest from their work as a few guards snoozed nearby. Tails was among them, sitting with Cream as they wondered what was being done with the others. They suddenly heard some shuffling noises in a passageway nearby, and Ranjit popped out of the whole. "Ranjit!" Cream softly called to him as she ran over, as Tails followed her. "Who?" Cream giggled a bit. "Oh yeah. Tails, this is Ranjit. He's been looking after me ever since I got here." Ranjit smiled and nodded to Tails before looking to cream. "How are you doing? Are you sharing your rations like I told you too?" Cream nodded softly as he smiled. "That's good. You'll make a lot of friends doing that, and believe me, you need friends in a place like this." Cream nodded and hugged Ranjit softly. "I don't like it when you leave, Ranjit. I get so scared when you're not around."

Ranjit patted her back softly. "Don't you worry, Cream. If all goes according to plan, you'll be back with your mother in no time." Cream perked her ears. "Plan?" Tails jumped in. "You have a plan?" Ranjit nodded. "Yes. But, unfortunately, it's hit a bit of a snag. Mola Ram came in after I left, and he's going sacrifice Sonic!" Cream gasped. "No!" Tails struggled with his shackles. "Well, we've got to go save him then. Can you free us?" Ranjit nodded. "Yes. I have special lock picks you could use." Tails immediately reached out with his hand "Well, give me one, then!" Ranjit shushed him. "No. Not now. Only when the time is right."

Tails just stared at him. "So when's the right time." Ranjit simply answered, "You will know as soon as I know. Just trust me, and be ready to act when the moment comes." With that, he hugged Cream once more, and disappeared into the passage. Tails stared into the passage as Cream rubbed her hands together anxiously. "Oh, I hope he knows what he's doing." Tails nodded softly as he waited with her, as the guards prepared to start them on another working shift.

Time passed, and the work continued in the mines, as the rats stood guard, whipping any stragglers, as Tails and Cream worked as casually as they could, in the hopes that Ranjit would soon show up again to help them, unaware of what was about to take place in the ceremonial room above.

The drums thundered through the room slowly as the group of rats, and the Maharajah gathered once more, as they watched the altar from across the firey pit. Mola Ram was already standing near the edge, addressing the crowd in their native tongue. "Kali-ma me shak te, meda mali! Shappa te hei mo, no hup ti gi! MASA DE OH BE TE POLIGAD!" But there was something particularly special about this event. Knuckles sat helplessly near the altar, as a pair of heavy shackles was attached to his wrists, keeping him on the ground. Chattar Lal was standing in his usual place on the altar, with Amy standing right next to him! She had a partially blank look in her eyes, with the same small smile from before, as she responded Mola Ram's chanting in English.

"Kali-ma protects us. We are her children. We pledge our devotion to her with an offering of flesh…" As she said this, she could hear yelling, as two rats were dragging out Sonic. She finished her sentence as she saw this, "…and blood." Chattar Lal looked to her and stated, "Your friend has seen, and he has heard. Now he will not talk."

Knuckles could only watch as Sonic was pulled over to the cage-like device that they had previously used on Eggman, as he struggled to get away in vain. He looked over at Amy, as the crowd of rats began chanting once more. "C'mon Amy. What're you doing just standing there? I know I've complained about you being obsessed with me, but I wouldn't mind some of that obsession now!" He struggled as she just stared at him with a hypnotic smile on her face. "Amy! What are you doing? What's the matter with you?" Amy just watched as the cage was pulled right-side up with a small squeak, set down on the ground as the two strong rats pulled Sonic over and threw him into it, only managing to get one of his arms into the shackles as Mola Ram slowly walked to him, the smoke billowing from the firey pit behind him as the crowd chanted " SAY A PREE BE GEH BE OHN TEY YAMBO! RIGA YAN PAHN CONNA YA SE TAMBO!" Sonic breathed nervously, and simply covered his chest with his free hand as Mola Ram approached.

Sonic kept a stern, but slightly nervous face, as Mola Ram continued the ceremony, obviously delighted with the fear that he could sense in Sonic. He stroked his trembling face with his hand slightly as he stated, "Bunno lak te. Bunno lak te Kali ma." Sonic lightly said "no…" under his breath as Mola Ram decided to cut to the chase at that point, raising his hand into the air towards the statue of Kali. "Kali-ma." Knuckles watched as Mola Ram's hand began to shake with power. He began to lower it while chanting, "Kali-ma, shuk tee deh!" Sonic began to breathe harder as Mola Ram lowered his hand closer to his chest. "Oh-nee-jerado, beh-beh ah geh."

But just when it looked like Mola Ram was about to go for his heart, he just looked at Sonic and grinned evilly, before pulling his hand away slowly. The chorus swelled as he slowly moved his arm, extending his hand, using it to motion for Amy! "Come…" he softly commanded, as Amy smiled and began to walk over to the cage. "Come…" he smiled and motioned, as Amy walked around the back of the cage, past two echidnas with painted faces who stared blankly ahead. The chorus lightly began to chant, "kor-ram, kor-ram, kor-ram, sur-ram", As sonic looked over at her. "Amy…Amy…help us…" Amy only blinked a little bit, before returning to her evil smile, as Mola Ram looked on expectantly at her.

Amy slowly walked up to Sonic, and looked over him as Sonic softly pleaded with her in a calm manner. "Amy…please snap out of this…" Amy looked him in the eyes blankly as he continued. "You're not one of them…" Amy lightly took Sonic's hand into hers, blankly looking at it as he breathed a little heavier, "You're NOT one of them…" Knuckles sat by in his shackles, just hoping he could find a way to reach her.

As this was going on, Tails and Cream were still working casually, waiting and waiting as the guards gradually dispersed over their area. It was then that two objects fell out from nowhere at their feet. They looked up to see Ranjit in a hole above, waving to them as he pointed to the lock picks he just threw down to them. Tails nodded, immediately understanding as he used one pick to take off his shackles, giving another one to Cream as she freed herself with it. The other children watched in awe as Tails shushed them quietly, and tiptoed around a mine cart with Cream, as the Aligator was just walking in front of them, leaving it behind.

They continued to sneak around, looking for a way out as Tails looked up and saw the same hole in the ceiling that had a passage leading to the altar room, which Sonic and Knuckles had used earlier. He pointed it out to Cream as one guard managed to catch sight of them. He yelled out to the other guards as Tails gasped and grabbed Creams arm, taking off with her as they both ran, avoiding guards lunging at them as the other kids cheered them on. They ran and ran all around the outer mines, before seeing a smooth slope below them. Both of them swallowed hard and ran to the slope made of smooth glassy rocks, sliding down on it as their speed increased. Two guards tried to grab them at the bottom, but before they could even touch them, tails suddenly jumped up, grabbing both of Cream's arms as he began to twirl his tails, lifting them both into the air like a chopper as the two guards lunged for them, only to collide into each other.

The children cheered like crazy as the two ascended towards the hole, both with big smiles on their faces. Ranjit was right there at the top, waiting for them as he helped Tails and Cream get their footing in the passageway, helping them set down. Cream happily hugged Tails, giving him a little kiss on the cheek in thanks as she ran off with Ranjit. Tails smiled and blushed a bit, before running off to join them.

Back in the Altar room, things looked grim. Amy took the hand of Sonic, and gently placed it into the other shackle in the cage, locking it in place. "NO!" Sonic yelled. "Have you lost your mind, Amy?" Knuckles looked on in shock as Amy simply began chanting. "Kor-ram, sur-ram…kor-ram, sur-ram…" the crowd began chanting the same thing again as the rats and the two Echidnae began to adjust the cage that Sonic was in, as he began to mutter. "This can't be happening…this can't be happening…wake up, Sonic…" The chanting slowly swelled as the cage was flipped over, and Amy went over to the other side of the altar to watch. Chattar Lal pulled a lever as the slab below the cage opened, revealing the swirling hot pit of lava. Sonic simply closed his eyes, trembling as he prayed to himself that everything would turn out ok, the heat already making him feel woozy.

The drumming and the chanting intensified as the crowd chanted. "KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM SUR-RAM! KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM, KOR-RAM SUR-RAM!" Knuckles struggled with his shackles in a last ditch attempt to free himself, but to no avail. Amy just stood by, smiling in the same hypnotic fashion as the chorus swelled and swelled, and Mola Ram simply looked on this time.

As this was happening, Tails, Cream, and Ranjit all ran into the back part of the altar. Cream turned and immediately saw her friend Amy, running to her and grabbing her arm. "C'mon, Amy, let's get out of here!" Amy immediately threw her arm away from her, and used it to backhand her across the face! Tails gasped and ran over to Cream as she looked up to Amy with a tear in her eye. "Amy…"

Mola Ram caught sight of this, and immediately barked orders to the rats. Ranjit was grabbed from behind before he could act, and Tails was grabbed, by his said tails as he tried to fly away. Cream immediately ran, not wanting to be captured again, and picked up a torch nearby, waving it around in an attempt to fight off the guards. She noticed them recoiling a bit from the flame, and got an idea as she jabbed it briefly into the stomach of one guard. He yelled and fell unconscious as the contact made a sizzling sound on him.

As she fled from the guards, she stopped in front of Amy, who just stared down at her as she said, "Amy, I love you…" she then jabbed the torch at her belly as she yelled, "Wake up, Amy!" Amy immediately screamed at the feel from the flames, and fell to her knees as two guards grabbed Cream.

Sonic was still being lowered slowly into the pit as the crowd chanted, "CHOY-HUP! CHOY-HUP! CHOY-HUP! CHOY-HUP!" Amy blinked, and shook her head as she came into full consciousness once again. She became aware of what was going on, as she looked over and saw one of the guards holding Cream withdrawing a knife from his pocket. She thought of something right there, trying to make it look like she was still one of them. She stopped the one guard as he was about to slit Cream's throat, yelling, "Wait! She's mine!" She then grabbed the terrified little rabbit, by her dress, pulling her over to the edge of the pit, and holding her over it.

As Cream gave Amy a terrified look, she simply said, "I'm all right, Cream." And winked at her, motioning her head towards her mallet, which was conveniently right next to her on the altar. Cream nodded to her quickly before Amy tossed her to safety! She picked up the mallet, ran right over to where Knuckles was, and with the hardest swing she ever took, managed to put a crack in his shackles. The crowed yelled out as the guards immediately moved towards them. Knuckles managed to break the cracked shackle, and broke his other one off too as he freed himself! He immediately began punching away, sending many guards to their deaths as they fell from the edge of the altar!

Amy knocked other guards away with her mallet, as Ranjit managed to kick himself off of the guard who held him, running over to another guard on his strong feet, and kicking him hard in the chin, getting him to release Tails as he fell! Tails just let Ranjit do his thing as he sprung around everyone on his feet, kicking the guards away as Knuckles fought with the two Echidnae watching over the lowering cage. One of them charged at him with a staff, before Knuckles grabbed it and lifted him up with it, sending him over the side and into the pit as he swung the staff around and smacked the other one with it, knocking him into the inferno as well.

Amy struggled with Chattar Lal, who was keeping her from getting to the control lever. Lal had blindsided her with a kick, making her drop her mallet as he withdrew a knife. Amy struggled to get back to her feet as Lal was poised to strike. But before he could make his move, Cream snuck up behind him, and smashed a rock into his foot! Lal turned and yelled, "Ow! What in blazes…" Amy took advantage, and gave him a resounding shot to the face with her mallet! The force sent Lal into the wooden gear that raised and lowered the cage, falling on the other side as one of the big wooden sticks slammed right into his chest, crushing and killing him as it stopped the cage!

And was just at the right time. The cage had stopped just before it made contact with the lava. As this happened, Knuckles ran to his nemesis on the altar yelling, "Mola Ram!" Mola Ram soon ducked and rolled into a secret passageway, laughing at Knuckles as he couldn't reopen it to go after him.

Knuckles soon ran over with the others as the crowd protested from across the pit. He rolled Lal's body out of the gear, as Amy and Ranjit turned it, making the cage come back up, complete with an almost unconscious Sonic, exhausted from the heat. Amy ran over as Knuckles turned the cage over, slapping Sonic lightly on the face. "Wake up, Sonic. C'mon Sonic, wake up!" Sonic weakly opened his eyes, and attempted to throw a punch at Amy! Amy shook Sonic, "No Sonic! It's me! I'm all right!" Sonic smiled and sat up a bit, rubbing his sweaty brow. "Oh…Thank god." He slowly stood up and got his bearings as Knuckles and Ranjit gathered the three emeralds from the skull statue nearby.

Cream walked slowly over to Amy, holding her mallet as she looked up at her kind of somberly, offering it to her as her face still had a mark from where she had been struck. Amy accepted it, and then hugged her young friend tightly. "Amy…my friend…" Cream muttered as Amy responded, "I'm sorry, Cream. I really am."

After they finished, Tails walked to Sonic as he was back on his feet and ready to go, after sipping some cold water that Ranjit brought in a makeshift canteen. "Let's get out of here, Sonic." Tails said as he stood next to him. Sonic nodded softly and looked back to the passage that led to the mines. "Right…ALL of us!"

Back in the mines, things were looking miserable once again. As punishment for two of their prisoners escaping, they were making the poor children work twice as hard as before. Many were pushing carts in groups, while others were carrying baskets full of rocks. One of the children slipped and fell over, as another one tried to help her up, only to be accosted by a guard with a whip.

But before the guard could give out any punishment, he looked up to see a figure in the shadows. A figure with large hands! Before the guard could say anything, two punches landed, and the guard was sent sliding across the gravel-covered floor. The two children looked up as Knuckles stepped forward, and smiled. Other guards tried to run in and stop Knuckles and the others, but were soon quelled by rebelling children, who dumped load after load of rocks on them from above!

Knuckles ran over and punched out another guard, as Ranjit rolled in and sprung up, kicking another one in the chest as Sonic also rolled in and took one out with a sonic spin. Amy, Cream, and Tails, all picked up their keys, and walked to all of the anxious children, undoing their shackles group by group. The freed children ran around with glee, heading back up to the main floor of the palace, trashing a few of the rooms before finally leaving!

Most of the guards had been taken care of by now, but one still remained. The Aligator! He stood near Sonic as he picked up a sledgehammer and tried to swing it at him. He caught the hammer before it hit him, and lifted Sonic into the air, depositing him into A mine cart nearby. Ranjit was about to help out, before he saw more guards running into the room, deciding to look after the others as Knuckles rushed in to fight the Gator. The Gator was slowly wheeling the cart toward a conveyor belt as Tails suddenly rushed up, and tried to whip his back with a small cat-o-nine-tails. It obviously didn't affect the Gator at all, but as he turned to take the implement from Tails, Knuckles came in with a metal pail, clocking him across the face with it. Sonic later came to, and leaped out of the cart, joining in the fight as they edged closer to the conveyor belt.

As this was happening, the hypnotized Maharajah, watching from above, took out another tiny effigy, like the one he had of Amy earlier, only this one was shaped like Knuckles! He slowly withdrew a needle from his turban, and with a sinister smile, plunged it into the doll's back! Back on the ground, Knuckles suddenly reached at his back and yelled out in pain, as if something just jabbed him in the back! He stumbled and fell onto the conveyor belt as the Gator tossed Sonic and Tails aside easily, jumping onto the belt to take care of Knuckles. Knuckles got back up and punched the Gator a few more times, picking up two pails, and rising to smash him in the head with them. But he suddenly cried out in pain as he felt another jab in his back, as The Maharajah gleefully jammed the pin into the doll of Knuckles.

"What's wrong with him?" Sonic asked Tails in frustration, as Tails suddenly looked over and saw the Maharajah from high above with the doll and pin. "I'll be right back, Sonic!" he said, before taking off and elevating himself with his twirling tails. Sonic jumped down onto the belt as Ranjit continued to protect Amy and Cream from the sporadic guards. Knuckles struggled painfully with the Gator as the belt moved them slowly towards a quick rolling wheel, which crushed every rock that went into it. Sonic jumped onto the gator's back as he tried to strangle him from behind with his arms, which was clearly having no effect.

Tails soon landed on the ledge where the Maharajah was, running over and tackling him, making him drop the doll as it still had the pin lodged in it! Back on the belt, the gator threw Sonic off, before pinning Knuckles to the belt, as they got closer to the wheel, waiting for it to crush his head. Knuckles screamed as he was in too much pain to do anything about it. Back on the ledge, Tails struggled with the Maharajah, wrestling him to the ground as he reached slowly for the pin.

Tails finally elbowed the Maharajah right in the chest, before reaching over and pulling out the pin. With that, Kunckles suddenly came to full attention, sitting up and grabbing a saw, and swinging it right into the gator's gut! It wasn't sharp enough to penetrate in too far, but it did stun and hurt the gator to the point where Knuckles could tackle him to the belt and start punching the living daylights out of him. At the same time, the Maharajah suddenly pulled out a knife and swiped it at Tails. Tails fell back as the maharajah walked to him with a crazed look in his eyes. Tails then saw another torch nearby, grabbing it and jabbing it at his belly. The young ruler screamed as it touched him, and fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, the persistent gator shoved Knuckles off of him, and was about to attack him and Sonic again, when he suddenly felt something grab at him. He looked back in terror to discover that his long silk scarf had caught inside the crushing wheel, and was slowly being pulled in. The gator frantically yelled and tried to untie his scarf from his shoulders, but was unable to as Sonic and Knuckles jumped off the belt and left the scene, not watching as the Gator let out a final scream, being pulled into the wheel and finally crushed underneath it's weight, making a horrible sound!

Ranjit found a movable mine cart on the tracks, telling Amy and Cream to get inside as he had an idea. As this happened, Tails sat back, still a bit scared as the Maharajah, freed from the spell of Mola Ram, sat up and rubbed his head. "What?" he said to himself, before realizing. "Have I been freed?" Tails simply responded, "Well, I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like you're back to normal." The Maharajah nodded and smiled. "Yes. Indeed, I have control over myself once again. Thank you my friend." Tails smiled and nodded as he looked down to see Sonic running towards him from below, having seen Ranjit's idea to use the mine carts.

"Tails! Quit fooling around with that kid! We've gotta get out of here!" He shouted to his friend, who nodded and prepared to take off on his tails once more, before the Maharajah suddenly gripped his shoulder. "Please listen." He told Tails "To get out onto the safer paths, you must take the left tunnel." Tails smiled and thanked him as he simply nodded. Tails then took off, twirling his tails as the Maharajah searched for his own way out through some small tunnels below.

Tails landed near Sonic as he ran with him and Knuckles. They all joined Ranjit, Amy, and Cream all in the cart as it slowly began to roll along. As this happened, some thuggee guards ran in with bows and arrows, shooting them at the group as they ducked. Sonic looked up briefly and said "The cart's heading for that left tunnel. Tails nodded "Good. That's where we need to go!" But as soon as they spoke, a flying arrow hit the switch to the track, making it go off to the right instead! "Oh no." Tails exclaimed as they went down the undesirable paths, as the others looked on, unsure of what to do. Sonic then jumped behind them on the track, putting his hands on the slow moving cart.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked as she looked at him with a shocked expression. "Giving our ride a little boost" Sonic answered as he began to work his feet, running as quickly as he could as the cart began to pick up speed. It was soon speeding along the way a normal well-greased cart would, rolling down the hills like a roller coaster as everyone held on. Unfortunately, Sonic looked back and saw a cart full of thuggee guards in hot pursuit, knowing they'd be in danger if he didn't move faster now. He pushed a bit harder as Knuckles got a look at the guards and scowled, as Cream held tightly to her surrogate brother Ranjit. Sonic pushed the cart onto one side of a divided track, with a pool of lava far beneath the divide. The pursuing cart got onto the other side, as one guard suddenly lunged across, and grabbed Tails by the hands! Knuckles and Amy grabbed his feet As Tails screamed, being pulled to the divide as the pool of hot magma boiled below him. A great tug of war ensued as the Thuggees tried to pull Tails onboard, and Knuckles and Amy tried to get him back in. Finally with a tug of great strength, Knuckles helped Amy pull Tails away from the Thugge. The lunging guard lost his balance, and fell into the lava screaming as Tails fell back against the side with Knuckles as Amy sat, while Sonic pushed and ran with the cart.

Sonic suddenly pushed the cart over a gap in the track, trusting the momentum to carry them to the other side as the others all froze in fear at this moment. The cart coasted over the gap, where there was nothing but sharp rock below, before finally landing on the lower track with a bang! Everyone was shaken as Sonic pushed it without missing a beat, sending it along the tracks as yet another cartload of Thuggee guards raced along behind them. One of them shot an arrow at sonic, missing as Knuckles looked up, seeing a rusted metal tube with rocks and debris trapped in it above him. As they passed, he took a quick punch at all three sections of the tube, which broke apart as the pursuing cart went over it, causing all the debris to spill into their cart! The cart slowed as they tried to take out all the debris, as Sonic looked back and smiled.

But just when it looked like it was smooth sailing, another cart suddenly crashed through the straggler! The guards were sent flying, covered in debris as the other cart raced towards them. They pulled out their bows and shot arrows at them as another cart approached from the upper track. A guard jumped from the upper track, and into Sonic's cart, attacking with a knife! Amy shielded cream as Knuckles caught him with a punch, and Ranjit delivered a hard kick, sending him out over the side as the carts remained in pursuit. The other guard in the upper cart saw this, and jumped into the cart as well, landing on Ranjit and knocking the wind out of him, as he blindsided Knuckles with the handle on his knife! Amy then slowly approached him with a scowl as he approached them with his knife. But before he could move, Amy caught him with a hard punch to the chin! The guard tumbled out backwards onto the tracks, as the other cart ran through, running over him and getting thrown off the track in the process! It fell down miles below, crashing through some supports in the process.

Sonic then jumped back into the cart as it coasted along. "I think that's the last of them." He chuckled as he caught his breath. Ranjit then looked around. "Uh oh. I think we're getting close to the end of the line." Sonic nodded. "Ok then. Put on the brakes, Tails." Tails nodded and pulled back on the brake, which suddenly broke right off! He gasped as Knuckles exclaimed. "well, that's just great!" Amy shouted "we're still going too fast!" Sonic groaned and nodded as he saw the end of the line coming up, realizing what he had to do. He walked to the front as everyone panicked, and jumped onto the front end of the cart, placing his feet on the wheels! Amy watched with the others in shock, "Are you crazy?" as Sonic gritted his teeth and pressed his feet to the wheels, squealing and rubbing along them as the cart slowed down. He then screamed out in agony as the friction began to heat up his feet. Eventually the cart slowed to a stop, as he leaped off and panted, patting dirt onto his feet as Ranjit ran over and poured some of the water from his little canteen onto them. Sonic sighed in relief and thanked him as the others climbed out, happy to have that ordeal over with.

Knuckles walked over after a moment. "Ok, if you're through resting, then I'd like to get the hell out of this place." Tails chimed in "I agree. I like traveling as much as the next guy, but we've done more than enough on this trip. Ranjit nodded as he carried the bag with the emeralds. "Yes, it is about time that we take at least these three emeralds away from Mola Ram's grasp. He shall not terrorize the world as long as we are around." Cream walked with him as Sonic got up, as Amy walked next to him as well. "I just hope we can find a safe way to leave from here." Sonic shrugged, "Well, there's only one way to find out." He ran out of the cavern leading to daylight, as the others joined him.

The path led back out into a part of the forest near a canyon, with a river far below it. Everyone ran out with Sonic as he spotted a large suspension bridge connecting both sides, pointing the others out to it, before two other guards jumped out at them from nearby. Sonic and Knuckles fought them both as Ranjit ran with Amy, Tails, and Cream. They made their way quickly across the bridge, trying not to notice the long drop below them, before reaching the other side. But as they reached it, Amy suddenly looked in front of her and screamed, because she soon saw Mola Ram standing in front of her with his guards! The others froze in back of her, as Mola Ram simply stated, "Welcome."

Tails looked around frantically, wanting to fly away, but knowing all too well that he couldn't carry three people all that far. The guards made sure they stood still as they drew their bows. Sonic ran onto the bridge with Knuckles after taking care of the two guards, stealing their swords in the process, before seeing what was happening, and turned around to suddenly see a squad of guards approaching the other side of the bridge as well. Knuckles growled as he raised his sword and yelled "Let them go, Mola Ram!" Mola Ram laughed and stated, "You are in a position, unsuitable for giving orders!"

Ranjit suddenly yelled "Sonic!" before kicking the tied up bag with the emeralds inside into the air, landing in Sonic's hands. Sonic held the bag out over the edge as he yelled. "You want the emeralds? Then set them free!" Mola Ram glowered a bit at him as Cream gripped Ranjit tightly, as Amy turned to Mola Ram and smirked a bit. "Let them go!" Sonic yelled once more.

Mola Ram simply laughed again and pointed to Sonic and Knuckles. "Go on, you two! Drop them! They will be found! YOU WON'T!" He laughed maniacally as he shouted a command of "Ganh Na!" to the guards. The guards slowly advanced towards Sonic and Knuckles on both sides of the bridge. They walked closer and closer, as Sonic and Knuckles slowly raised their swords, threatening to cut the bridge as their advancing slowed.

Mola Ram saw this and pulled out a menacing knife, pointing it towards Amy and the others as he hearded them back onto the bridge to discourage Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles groaned a bit as he saw this, as Sonic looked all around him. Knuckles looked to Sonic, "So what do we do now?" Sonic looked over and hooked his foot around one of the ropes on the bridge. "There's only one thing we CAN do now." Knuckles saw what he was doing and quickly understood, nodding as Sonic looked over and said "Tails!" As tails looked to Sonic, he saw him hooking his foot around the rope as he raised his sword a bit. Tails nodded, looked to everyone with him and softly said, "Grab onto something, guys. We're gonna go on a little ride." Amy's jaw dropped when she realized what was going to happen, quickly hooking her arms around two loose sections of rope as Cream and Ranjit held onto the sides as well.

At this moment, Knuckles gave Mola Ram a half crazed look. "Mola Ram…" he proclaimed, "Prepare to meet Kali…in Hell!" And with that he and Sonic suddenly began chopping at the support ropes with their swords. The guards jumped a bit as Mola Ram's eyes widened. "What are you doing?!" He quickly spat out as they continued to chop away at the bridge, and their friends quickly held on for dear life. "You fool!" He spat again, half angry and half scared, as he dove down to grab one of the floorboards, knowing he wouldn't make it to the other side on time. Many guards who didn't know better started running to safety, before Sonic and Knuckles finally cut the bridge in two, grabbing onto the floorboards as the bridge collapsed below them, now in two different parts which quickly whooshed downward, still held up at the ends, but the broken halves pulled by the force of gravity quickly, then hit and hung down from the rock walls. Any guards stupid enough to run at this point, were treated to a long, long fall from the bridge, all the way down into the river, where a pack of hungry crocodiles were waiting for them! Cream screamed as Ranjit grabbed her hand and held onto her, as Amy held onto a floorboard for dear life below, Sonic and Knuckles above her as she fell a bit before grabbing on. Tails was hanging upside down as his tails were snagged in between two floorboards, unable to fly now as he watched in horror, seeing the unfortunate guards getting eaten by the crocodiles, their turbans in sashes now everywhere in the water.

Mola Ram grabbed frantically at the floorboards, trying to climb to safety, taking one of his own men, and throwing him off the hanging bridge, just for being in his way! Knuckles had enough of this, as he pulled Mola Ram down next to him, hanging off the same floorboard just below Sonic as he landed a few hard punches on Mola Ram, who responded with a few hard swings of his own. Sonic quickly shouted, "Knuckles, cover your heart!" but was to late, as Mola Ram quickly placed his palm on Knuckles chest, making him cough and spasm as he grinned and began trying to take out his heart, as Knuckles grabbed his wrist! "Oh my god!" Amy shouted as she watched from below, as Mola Ram softly chanted "Oh bes ke ban bebe no jidah he!" a couple of times, starting to laugh deviously, before Knuckles got a sudden burst of strength, slowly moving Mola Ram's now balled up hand over, before bringing his arm up, and making him punch himself in the face with it!

Mola Ram sputtered, before smacking Knuckles with another punch, and moving up, smashing Sonic in the belly, and taking the bag with the emeralds from him as he tried to catch his breath without falling. Knuckles tried to follow, but couldn't go up without keeping his grip to well, as Mola Ram climbed slowly towards Cream and Ranjit, yelling something to his guards on the other side as they began to shoot arrows towards Sonic and Knuckles. The two heroes dodged the flying arrows, as Mola Ram got close to Cream and Ranjit, hoping to throw them out of the way as well. The two rabbits responded by stamping hard on his large echidna fingers repeatedly! Mola Ram squirmed, and began groaning in pain and frustration, trying to move up, before taking a hard kick in the head from Ranjit! He tried to move up again, only to hear Cream yell, "Go away you big meanie!" before kicking him in the head just as hard! This last kick made him lose his grip, as he fell, still holding the bag as he grabbed a floorboard, and was now hanging right next to Amy! Amy quickly grabbed the other side of the bag as a tug of war ensued on the broken bridge, with miles of rocky walls below them, with a river of hungry crocs waiting for the next meal to fall!

"The stones are mine!" Mola Ram frantically yelled, as he struggled to take the bag from Amy, whose mind still burned from all the awful things this Echidna had done to everyone, including making her do his dirty work earlier. Plus, something in that blood she drank seemed to do something else to her. "You betrayed Chaos!" she suddenly said, as an aura seemed to form around her in Mola Ram's eyes. She suddenly began chanting in a language she never even studied before, as Mola Ram looked, and swore that he could suddenly see the essence of none other than Tikal herself shining through her! "You betrayed Chaos!" she yelled again as she chanted, as the others watched from above, as the front of the bag suddenly ignited, burning a hole as the emeralds began to push through! Mola Ram watched in horror as two of the three gems fell out and disappeared into the river below, before the last one began to drop out. He reached out to grab it, not thinking of how hot it could be, as the shimmering stone dropped into his hand, burning it on contact!

Mola Ram shrieked in pain as this happened, tossing the gem into the air. Amy stopped chanting as the emerald stopped burning at the same time, catching it as Mola Ram fell from the bridge, screaming as he smashed against the rocky wall repeatedly on his long fall down, his screams getting fainter with each impact. Tails covered his eyes this time, as Ranjit shielded cream from what he knew was going to happen. A croc jumped up from the water, and quickly snatched Mola Ram's body, diving underwater with it in tow, as pieces of sash and some blood, along with his amulet, soon rose to the surface within minutes.

Amy climbed up with the lone emerald as Sonic and Knuckles made their way up too, freeing Tails along the way, before finding a barrage of arrows from the surviving guards waiting for them as they flew towards the wall. They dodged them, not sure how long they could do it, before they climbed higher, and saw a familiar sight. It was the freed maharajah, running in with a squadron of troops from Lamah Jat, led by Captain Khan! The ram quickly took out his rifle, as his fellow troops followed suit, firing at the thuggee guards, hitting many of them as another squadron approached from the other side of the broken bridge, apprehending those who tried to flee!

Khan smiled as he and his troops helped everyone up from the bridge, looking at Sonic, Amy and Tails with a smile. "Ah. My fellow dinner guests I presume?" Sonic grinned and nodded. "Yeah. We stayed around for a while. Nice location, but the room service left a lot to be desired." Khan chuckled a bit and nodded. "Yes. Once you never showed up to see me after dinner, well that only deepened my suspicions." He looked to the other side. "Well, you needn't worry now. I don't think they'll be sacrificing anyone else for a long time." Amy nodded "Yeah. All of their ringleaders are dead." She said, referring to Mola Ram, Chattar Lal, and the huge Aligator guard leader. Tails chimed in "And…so is Dr. Eggman!" Cream suddenly looked up and beamed. "All the bad guys are gone now?" Knuckles hmmed. "Well, I can never see someone like Mola Ram dying so easily, and there are always going to be bad people in this universe no matter what we do, but for now…it looks like we've earned ourselves some peace." Sonic shook his head with a smile. "Peace…Now that's a word I thought I'd NEVER hear." Ranjit smiled and ruffled Cream's hair a bit as Amy smiled and nodded down at the single chaos Emerald she held.

Khan came up and shook Sonic's hand. "Well, it looks like we part ways from here Sonic. Farewell. I hope this incident doesn't make you look down on us of the so-called "Uncharted Lands" at all. At least not where the noble kingdom of Lamah Jat is concerned." Sonic smiled and chuckled. "Oh don't worry Khan. You've already proven your kingdom as a friendly one. I'm sure we can work out some kind of alliance in the future." Khan smiled "I shall very much look forward to that.

Ranjit soon came up to Sonic. "Excuse me?…" Sonic turned to him. "What is it?" Ranjit smiled as he looked to Cream. "I believe I found the reason why Chaos lets me live. It is to look after her. Thank you for helping me to discover this." Cream smiled and blushed a bit as Amy jumped in. "That's great, Ranjit. I'm sure you'll do a fine job being her brother." Cream cheered and smiled as she hugged Ranjit, thanking him for looking after her as he smiled, feeling like he belonged to something finally, brushing away a tear on his cheek.

Knuckles soon got up and walked off, "I'd love stay behind and watch this emotional exchange some more, but I need to do some things. I need to see if there are any thuggees still running around. And I need to see if Mola Ram's really dead." Amy reached to say something to him, before Sonic stopped her. "No. Let him go. He'll find his way back, he always does." Amy nodded slowly as everyone watched the lone Echidna walk off to explore on his own. Sonic then dusted himself off a bit and smiled. "Well, I think it's time to go home now." Tails jumped up and nodded. "Yup. ALL of us." He giggled.

Back in Amy and Cream's hometown, everything was slowly going back to normal among the adults. Much of the damage from the fire had been repaired, as all the farming, business, and the like went on, only without all of the children, which still lingered in all of their minds as they worked.

Bur this particular day was a special one, as a few who were working along the beach, suddenly looked out, and saw the Plane carrying Sonic, Tails, and Amy, back from their journey, with a single chaos emerald in tow. As they exited the plane soon after landing, the adults gathered in anticipation, wondering what news they would bring about their children.

The answer soon came as a brand new large submarine suddenly breached the surface of the ocean, bearing the seal of the kingdom of Lamah Jat! It landed on the sand, the large front hatch opening, and creating a ramp as an army of youngsters suddenly ran down from it, towards their estranged families! The Adults all cheered and wept for joy as the children ran to their families, greeted with loving hugs and kisses as entire families were now reunited for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. Amy looked on with a big smile as Cream's mother smothered her daughter in kisses, before looking up and seeing Ranjit standing behind her, unsure of what to make of him at first, but something in his smile seemed to melt her heart, as she suddenly pulled Ranjit into all of the hugging and kissing, seeming to accept him as her son right then and there, which took him by surprise as his eyes widened at first, before settling into a level of motherly affection he never knew existed, thinking he could get used to it.

Tails smiled at the sight as he looked over a jittery propeller on his plane, while Amy walked around Sonic a bit. "This just made our whole ordeal all the more worthwhile, I think." Sonic nodded. "Yup. And we got one of the emeralds back. Now if anyone wants to own all seven of them, they're gonna have to go through us this time." Amy thought a bit. "Well, now that Eggman's gone, do you think your adventures might get a little boring now?" Sonic shrugged as he took Amy's hand "I don't know. It's a long way to the next city." Amy quickly jerked her hand away. "Oh no, Sonic. No more adventures with you for a while." Sonic chuckled and looked to her. He couldn't believe it, but he actually thought he'd miss her from this point on. "Amy…after all the fun we've had?" Amy scoffed "Fun? You call being served Iguana, before having your heart ripped out and lowered into a hot pit FUN? Well let me tell you…" she gazed at Sonic, remembering her old crush on him as things were returning to normal now. "It was…kind of fun…I guess" She giggled as Sonic looked at her in a sort of fond way. The two gazed at each other, and examined themselves, wondering what the future might hold for both of them.

However, that was quickly interrupted when tails finally got his plane propeller and engine to work correctly, spraying out some trapped dirt and sand onto Sonic and Amy! The two sputtered and glared at him as he chuckled and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry guys."

The two quickly forgave him though, as all the children and many of the adults came out to thank the young heroes. Captain Khan stepped out of the submarine to greet the adults as well, the seeds of a new alliance beginning. What the future held for them all was anyone's guess, but they were all ready to take the way Sonic always took life, and got through his trials and tribulations: one day and one adventure at a time.

THE END


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